Strategic Voting #nbpoli

ED. NOTE: In the interest of disclosure, Douglas Mullin, owner of Black-Capped, is an NDP candidate in the provincial elections. The author of this post is Jason Sonier, a musican based in Fredericton, a member of the NDP and friend to Douglas.

People who are dissatisfied with the current New Brunswick government will often say that they are voting strategically for the Liberals because they feel like they have the best chance of defeating the incumbent PC MLA. I have quite a few issues with this line of thinking: What is it that you don’t like about the PCs? Because I can almost guarantee that the Liberals are not gonna stand up for your cause.

Are you anti-fracking? Sorry but the Liberals under Graham are the ones who signed the leases with SWN in the first place and many of the same caucus remains in Gallant’s party. So far the Liberals have come out rather weak on shale gas…(http://nbliberal.ca/shale-gas/). This, to me, looks like they want to go ahead with it but just do it differently.

Is it access to abortion that you want? A large number of Liberal MLAs spoke at March For Life and are clearly anti-choice. It was also the Liberals under McKenna who brought in Regulation 84-20. Gallant has only promised to “review” it. Given the history of the New Brunswick Liberals, it’s easy to tell how this “review” is gonna go.

Is it fiscal responsibility that you’re after? The Liberal record is just as atrocious as the PCs and they PROMISE to put us even further in debt. It’s time to end this cycle.

There is nothing strategic about voting Liberal. There hasn’t been in the past and there certainly isn’t now. In fact, if everyone who in their hearts wanted to vote NDP in the past but voted Liberal instead actually voted the way they wanted to, we’d be progressively way ahead of where we are today. This “strategy” has only set us back. It’s time we start putting the pieces into place to create the New Brunswick we envision for ourselves.

The new NDP is a more than viable option. We are no longer the party who wants to sit back and be the conscience of New Brunswick government (that’s the Greens), we want a seat at the table. We want to be there making crucial decisions for New Brunswickers and we have the knowledge, clarity and experience to do so effectively.